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Students, teachers report classrooms reaching the 90s; operations outlines short- and long-term cooling plans
Summary
Students and a teacher told the board classrooms reached roughly 93°F, prompting calls for interim cooling measures. Chief of Operations Darnell Dancy said a long-term grant-dependent plan could take until September, and a faster interim option could be implemented sooner; staff will report back with specifics.
Students and staff at William Penn School District told the board their classrooms became dangerously hot this month — one student said temperatures reached "93° inside of my classroom" — prompting calls for immediate interim measures while staff finalize longer-term cooling plans.
"it was like really, really hot inside the school, like up to 93° inside of my classroom, which was crazy," Ishmael Torres, the district’s 10th grade student representative, told the board during student reports.
Teacher Latia Lewis described seeing students "burning up" and said some parents kept children home on the hottest days. "We were in there burning up. I had hives on my face by the end of the day," Lewis said during public comment, urging the board to close schools on extreme-heat days or at least deploy fans and other interim measures.
Chief of Operations Darnell Dancy told the board the district has two proposals. "We have two different proposals. We have a larger proposal that's going to be a more long-term solution that is directly in line with our facilities master plan," Dancy said, adding the long-term option depends on grant timing: "that proposal unfortunately from a timing perspective we won't know on the grant until we get that information back until September." He said the district also has a more expedient option that could deliver cooling sooner and that staff are finalizing numbers to share with the board prior to a final decision.
Board members and student representatives pressed for concrete interim measures. A student asked the district to "get back to me like this week so we can know what we have in place for them this week as the temperatures will rise," and the operations chief acknowledged the urgency, saying staff would continue internal conversations and share a recommendation with the board.
Why it matters: High indoor temperatures can impede learning and raise health concerns for students and staff. The district described both constrained timelines for grant-funded work and a faster, smaller-scale option for immediate relief.
What’s next: Operations staff will provide the board and student representatives with an update on immediate steps (fans, temporary cooling, relocation of events, or other interim measures) and a timeline for longer-term installation once grant decisions are clear.
